CLEVELAND, Ohio -- No matter how well-intentioned, the Jim Thome statue is not the smartest idea ever to come out of the Cleveland Indians front office.

None of this is a knock on Thome, who is the the team's all-time home run hitter with 337. He is a future Hall of Famer, a guy with 612 career homers.

So Thome was an elite player.

But a statue in front of a Stadium should represent more than that.

Bob Feller has a statue. He is a Hall of Fame pitcher. He was the face the franchise from the late 1930s through the early 1950s. He remained in town and was Mr. Cleveland Indian for decades after that. He also served in combat with the Navy during World War II.

The crusty Feller remains the greatest pitcher in Tribe history -- along with being a symbol of Cleveland baseball.

The Thome statue should represent more than Thome. It should say something about Tribe baseball in the 1990s after the move into Jacobs (now Progressive) Field in 1994.

What do most Tribe fans think about when closing their eyes and picturing the Tribe of the 1990s? Is it Thome?

Maybe.

Or it may be Omar Vizquel's poetry at short.

Or perhaps Albert Belle's scowl at home plate as he menacingly waved his bat, ready to bludgeon the baseball.

Or it could be Kenny Lofton's dash from second base to home plate, scoring on a passed ball in the 1995 playoff game at Seattle that sent the Tribe into the World Series for the first time in 41 years.

Or it's possible some fans may think of the quiet dignity that was Charles Nagy on the mound, Sandy Alomar behind the plate. Or Carlos Baerga, the penguin at the bat as he smacked a line drive and waddled into second base.

That's just the point ... it's all these things ... and more.

But the most remarkable part of the 1990s was the opening of the new ballpark and the 455-game sellout streak. That's when this really was a Tribe town.

If the team wanted to build a statue to a player, Larry Doby is prime candidate for breaking the color line in the American League.

But the goal seems to be to say something about Tribe baseball in the 1990s. Thome is a wonderful representative of it, but he was one glittering star in a galaxy of shining stars.

That's why I come back to the fans. The sellout streak. The stadium being a sea of Wahoo red, white and blue. The horns honking after another Tribe victory.

Want to build a statue? Do it to the fans of the 1990s, people excited about baseball.

Then put two plaques with the statue of fans -- one with all the names of the 1995 World Series team, another with all the names of the 1997 World Series team. That would tell a more dramatic story than a statue of one player from that era -- even a great one such as Jim Thome.

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